The real effort should now be on enabling women to progress to the higher grades. Before , the life of a woman centred around the home. Some single, middle-class women were school teachers and nurses, but the vast majority were tied to working as domestic servants or in the textiles and clothing industries. Married women were barred from working in many situations. But then the first world war began. Men were conscripted to fight and women began to fill their shoes.
Like most ethnic groups that immigrated to America, the Czechs sometimes called Bohemians came here for a better life. During the midth century, people living in the Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia were under the rule of the Habsburg Empire. This made the people subjects of a monarchy whose official religion was Roman Catholic and whose official language was German. Later, during the Cold War era, a main reason for Czech emigration was the desire to escape communism. Chicago was the destination for many of these newly arrived immigrants. During the s, Chicago was on the fast track to becoming the premier metropolis of the Midwest. Strategically located on the Great Lakes, Chicago served as a hub for railroads and in time became a giant in industry and commerce.
Not so long ago, most people viewed the hallmarks of success as something along the lines of a house, a white picket fence, two weeks vacation, two children, and the ability to send those kids to college. Today, the middle class is a vanishing breed , according to nearly every survey and statistic on the topic. Despite all of the attention to the subject, defining "middle class" remains a challenge, as everyone wants to be in the middle regardless of their income. Instead of focusing on the dollars, let's take a look at the six lifestyle benchmarks that define middle-class status. A wide variety of numbers have been thrown around in an effort to define the middle class.
St Angela Merici teaching a lesson to fellow nuns. A proper education was difficult to come by during the Middle Ages for men and especially women. If women wanted to receive a higher education, they had to reach for a higher calling—and join a convent.